Making scrapbooks

While lockdown has meant many days at home, it's looking like we may be here for a lot of the summer too.  Sometimes a fun activity like scrapbooking can be a great way to build motor skills and planning skills along with recalling and using your imagination.  All stuff my kids could use the practice with.

Our kitchen table is a mess of recycling for crafting, my phone is full of photos, I've got boxes of 'reminders' from days out that Jane refuses to throw away along with stickers, old wrapping paper and glue everywhere.  Time to try a scrapbook! Here's our tips to get started.

1. Organise some materials

Go through all your 'scraps' like pieces of fabric, magazines, wrapping paper scraps etc that we have around the home. David loves sorting things and you can decide any number of ways to categorise your scrap.  It could be size, colour, texture, theme or even time.

Then there is also all the scrapbook specific materials we have too.   We've got background patterns to use either on pages or to cut up, stickers, cuts outs, pop-pieces, gems (Jane loves gems!) in our craft box to use.

Jane chose a pink and purple galaxy background for her page below, but there's so many to choose from with digital paper files that can be downloaded for just about any project.   Design Bundles have thousands of options for all different projects that you can look at. If you are not sure where to start then their kits can give you ideas that you can add to.  My daughter loves them because they run around a theme and she loves a theme!

2. Clear a space and grab the basics

Once you've got things organised make sure you have a clear space to scrapbook and put things around that you might want to use.  Jane has plenty ideas but I usually help David if he's doing it to.  I put the resources around him on all sides to help with his motor skills development and crossing the middle of his body which helps his sensory system develop.

I know I stay our table is covered in a mess but organising it into piles of things and seeing what we want to use is helpful.  Plus we need the basic equipmenty things: a book that you can remove and add pages to; glue sticks; different types of scissors like crimping, wave and easygrip for those who struggle to cut, hole punches and pens etc.

3. Choose a topic

If you can think about it then you can scrapbook about it.  this can be a great activity for kids who have a special interest. It's great way of recording events or things that have happened and many kids find this reassuring. Jane is always worried about forgetting about a special day or an event and wants to keep something to help her remember it.

Anthony on the other hand knows everything about Formula One and recording it in a scrapbook is much easier than writing a diary for him.  He can choose images, stickers or cut outs of the day.  Course his memory is amazing but he likes reliving events and that's easy with a scrapbook.

Some of the simplest ideas are around things you've done or are planning to do by telling a story. We can't all create the elaborate glitter filled felt books that Poppy makes in Trolls, but start small and let it grow as a fun skill.  Instead of trying to document the whole of Troll history, Poppy can just do one party, birthday, day out or even just a mood page.

You can even scrap book on how to do something - like making a scrapbook!

4. Layout things out and start cutting

Planning is a skill that's easily missed and it's really challenging for many kids.  Thinking about what you might want to use and where it might go on a page is good practice for many bigger parts of life.

There are many scrapbook designs to help but perhaps think about the most important part of your page.  Is a photo, an image, a piece of fabric or word.  Often less is more as you focus on just one thing.  Otherwise you can go off on a tangent.

Then you can think around this focal point and start to cut you matching items, images or borders for your scrapbook.  Sometimes you can have a whole scrapbook on a theme, other things only need a few pages and your scrapbook ends as a sort of journal.

This can be really great for things like during the holidays.  Our kids use reminders like this when they go back to school to help them with all the questions about what they did. The first task back after summer was so often 'write about your summer break'.  It will be a lot to remember this year. We tend to work one page at a time.

5. Stick it down and finishing touches

Now get out the glue and get sticking, or at least stick your first page.  Our kids lose a bit of focus after a page so we tend to do scrapbooks slowly like mini projects.

Once all the main things are down we think about any more decorating or anything else we might like to add to the page.  Jane nearly always adds gems to her pages and as I mentioned she loves using the pretty paper to make a border too.  Patterned tapes are also a great way to make an easy border to a page or to link pages together - Jane like extra fold out parts!

Overall it's a great activity for our lot as it gets them using their motorskills and their imagination.  They are often very proud of the scrap book pages and this is benefit all in itself.